Caralee Johnson Adams has worked as a journalist for nearly 25 years, covering education, health, parenting, and other issues. She received her journalism degree from Iowa State University and her master’s degree in political science from the University of New Orleans.

Changes to Preliminary SAT Set For 2015

This month is the last time high school students will take the PSAT/NMSQT in its current version.

The College Board is rolling out a new Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in the fall of 2015 and a redesigned SAT in the spring of 2016.

The new PSAT/NMSQT will be 35 minutes longer (2 hours and 45 minutes total), include evidence-based reading and writing questions, and have a greater emphasis on the meaning of words in an extended context. Just as the SAT is switching to rights-only scoring, the PSAT/NMSQT also will give credits only for correct answers in the future.

Last year, 1.6 million juniors and 1.7 million sophomores in U.S. high schools took the PSAT/NMSQT. Students did best in the math section, followed by critical reading and writing. Performance was down slightly from the previous year, according to the College Board's summary report.

The test will be offered on Oct. 15 and Oct. 18 in 2014. Cost of the exam is $14. Fee waivers can be requested for 11th grade students.

To prepare for this year's test, College Board has information and free practice exams on the main PSAT/NMSQT page. For students taking the new exam next fall, College Board officials anticipate sample questions will be available in December or January. A full practice test is expected out by March.

Categories:

Tags:

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.